Emmy-nominated Padma Lakshmi is internationally known as an actress, food expert, model, and award-winning author, ambassador for the ACLU, as well as the recipient of the 2016 NECO Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Lakshmi was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role as host and judge on Bravo’s Emmy award-winning Top Chef, where she also serves as an executive producer. The show has just filmed its 15th season.

Lakshmi has established herself as a food expert, hosting successful cooking shows and writing the best-selling cookbooks Easy Exotic and Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet. Her memoir, The New York Times best-selling Love, Loss and What We Ate, was released in March 2016. She released The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs in October of 2016. In addition, Lakshmi is a savvy businesswoman with multiple companies of her own, including her home décor line, The Padma Collection, and Padma’s Easy Exotic, a collection of frozen rices, lentils and other culinary products.

She is also co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America. The EFA has educated over 16,000 teens on this devastating illness.